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Monday, February 17, 2014

Texting Breeds Bad Habits

The phone is always close.

One of the things I enjoy about texting is the ability to
ask a bunch of questions at once and just send them off. If I think of
something else before they reply, I simply type it out and send it as well. I
don’t have to wait for the first reply to come back before sending the next one
and that keeps me from forgetting what I wanted to ask. It may be a dialogue,
but more in the form of an email conversation than a face to face one. I mean,
I can answer a text while reading or watching television and not worry about
offending the person on the other end. I can even do it while sitting on the
toilet where having a normal conversation is just annoyingly awkward. Not that that
stops people from doing it. That closed door should come with some respect of
privacy.

I can also scan through the text and find what I want and
ignore the extraneous words that really say the same thing over and over. You
can’t do that with a live conversation, even though in your head you’re rolling
your eyes and wishing they would just get to the point. I don’t need to know
how they reached their answer; I just want the answer.

However, I believe that this has also led to some pretty
rude habits when it comes to non-technological interaction with people. We’ve
lost some skills that have helped us communicate throughout the ages. Children
are raised with this rude behavior engrained into them and told that the
behavior is quite acceptable when it is far from being anything close to that.

Not a good habit.

There is something in us that demands we answer our phones
right away. In the days before cell phones when the phone would ring people
raced to answer it. Then teens would stretch the cord as far as it could go to
get out of ear shot of nosy parents who wanted to see what was really going on
in their love life. When you weren’t at the house, you didn’t worry about the
phone. You had a machine that caught messages if the people left them so you
never really missed anything. You were just delayed in hearing it.

Now, we take our phones with us. We answer them in
restaurants, at checkouts, and in the middle of a face to face conversation.
And it’s not just a phone call. We feel that we have to answer text messages,
Facebook updates and Twitter tweets. It doesn’t matter what we are doing. When
that phone dings, we jump.

It has also taught children to interrupt more because they
are used to sending texts in rapid fire succession and not worrying about
waiting for a reply before sending another one. It also has taught them that eye
contact is not necessary when talking to someone. I hate looking at the top of
my child’s head when speaking. We make the 9-year old put the game down, look
up, and answer without talking in net speak. LOL is not a proper response or a substitution
to authentic laughter. It took me months to learn what SMH meant and by
then I was doing more than shaking my
head.

Furthermore, it destroys their attention span. It is hard to
get them to focus on something for a lengthy period of time because they are so
used to quick bursts of communication. The joy of being in a relationship is
the long conversations that help you dig into each other’s lives, the time
spent knowing someone. Besides, it’s just good manners to put the phone down.
Very few things are that important that a text should trump politeness.

I know I’ve ranted on this in similar fashion before, but it
never ceases to amaze me how rude people can be because technology has made it
possible. Don’t fall into the trap and even more, don’t allow your children to
develop bad habits. Put the phones down and enjoy the people around. Make your
children interact with others and not hide in their devices. Build
relationships and teach your children not to rely on electronics. The time is
now to communicate with those you care about. One day you’ll wish you had.

Stop bad behavior!

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8 comments:

I lost a co-worker to texting...looking down while driving, he was hit head on by a coal truck. He was 26 with a wife and a 2 year old. Senseless!

The texting is great for all the reasons you ascribe. But it also ruins the ability to write a complete sentence. SMH, OMG,IMHO, LOL, WTF...You need a texting dictionary to know what's being said, and God forbid, you ask.

I went to lunch with my daughters recently, and noted out of 10 tables seated with families, that only 2 had people engaging in conversation and I'm sure that was because the children were infants. The rest of the patrons all had phones in their hands, heads down, and no dialogue at the table. Even toddlers were given their parents phones to entertain them.

If we are not careful, we will breed a society of social retards...verbal interaction, a thing of the past.

I've already noticed several who are inept at socializing with others due to the phone being always in their hands. It will only get worse if we don't stop it and train our children instead of enabling them.

I have a t-shirt that has WTF on it, otherwise although I text, I write it out ... yes, texting distracts in many ways. I know the day'll come that unless my daughter changes her ways her son is going to muster the courage to either grab the cell out of her hand and throw it or , he is a smart kid, maybe just put it in the trash without her knowing and play dumb while she tries to find it. He'll have to keep his head down until her mood improves, however... I hope I'm there, should he decide the former, for his own protection.

The person who was killed due to texting is tragic. I saw this on a church marquee - I've shared it before: "Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you want to see him now."

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About Robbie

The Mess That Is Me is merely my unique observations that sometimes find themselves hiding in the dark corners of a twisted mind. It is a sampling of what clutters my desk and fills the manila envelopes that find their way to editors In-boxes. If you enjoy what you read, please share the URL.

I live in sunny Florida where I spend my days taxiing the family to various places while jotting down the many crazy thoughts inside my head. I enjoy a freelance career writing for several magazines sharing some of my interesting viewpoints on life and those around me. I can usually be found on my back porch watching the squirrels chittering at the birds while enjoying a cigar, a scotch, and the many characters that talk to me inside my head.

My manuscripts have appeared in religious, parenting and retirement magazines, along with a ghost story or two. I am the author of the short story, Circle of Justice and the novella, Reaping the Harvest, both of which can be found at Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Feel free to visit, strike up a chat and share a story or two with me.